Obama Dares The Supreme Court To Overturn His Health Care Law

The president could take on the Supreme
Court if it strikes down Obamacare.

President Barack Obama is gearing up for a potential fight with
the Supreme Court in the event it overturns his signature
legislative achievement.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the hearings at the
high court on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,
Obama exuded confidence that the law would be upheld as
constitutional and set himself up for a battle with the court by
labeling a potential overturn "judicial activism."

"In accordance with precedent out there, it's constitutional,"
Obama said at a joint press conference in the White House's Rose
Garden with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican
President Felipe Calderon, according to The Huffington Post.

“That’s not just my opinion, by the way. That’s the opinion
of legal experts across the ideological spectrum, including two
very conservative appellate court justices who said this wasn’t
even a close case.”

This was his main point -- that overturning of the law
would be an unprecedented step. It sets Obama up for a campaign
against the high court should it overturn the law, portraying it
as an activist and perhaps partisan bench.

Some strong words for the court:

"Ultimately I am confident that the Supreme Court will not
take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of
overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of
a democratically elected Congress.

"And I just remind conservative commentators that for years
what we have heard is that the biggest problem on the bench was
judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint; that an
unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly
constituted and passed law. Well, this is a good
example. And I'm pretty confident that this court will
recognize that and not take that step."

Groups that focused on promoting the law are already planning to
shift focus should it be struck down. One group, Protect Your
Car, told the Washington Post that it would paint
the bench's conservatives as partisan activists.

“Since Bush v. Gore, from the progressive side, it
would be the most galvanizing Supreme Court ruling ever,” said
Eddie Vale, a spokesman for the group. “You’d have a 5-4 court,
in clearly a partisan political decision, striking down not
just President Obama’s biggest legislative accomplishment but
also the biggest progressive legislation since LBJ.”

Obama was quick to then point out the ramifications for the
everyday U.S. citizen if the law is overturned -- provisions of
the law that have already taken effect. These include what he
said were 2.5 million children allowed to stay on their parents'
plans, changes to Medicare prescription plans and various
insurance industry regulatory reforms.

"There not only is an economic element to this, and a legal
element to this, there is also a human element to this," he said.